Centre for Public Policy Research (CPPR) is a think tank dedicated to intensive research on economic, social, and political issues.

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Sports – the glamour event of Kerala

Dhanuraj

Sreeshant is the latest hero of Kerala kids. This is a process continued, only the characters are changed over the years. The list is endless, P T Usha, Shiny Wilson, M D Valsamma, Rosakutty, Yohannan, BinaMol, I M Vijayan, Anju Boby George………….. the prospects and achievements varied at both national and international stages. Thanks to Colonel Godavrama Raja and DGP Joseph, the state generated much interest in sports scene.

Now, the state government has come up with sports lottery. The objectives behind the lottery are praiseworthy; the state wants to win more Olympic medals and Asian Games medals, a mission indeed. Government of Kerala plans to raise more than 200 crores by the sports lottery. At this point, I thought of inviting your attention the stature of the Sports and Games in this country…….

No one knows how much money we spend every year for Sports and Games. The aim is nothing but win medals in International meets like Olympics and Asian Games. The over all medal tallies of our country in all these Olympic Games is simply at our finger tips even though the money allocated to raise the standard of sports in annual budgets and spent by Union Sports Ministry are in millions. Then comes the question; what is the productive outcome of Sports Ministry? Sports Authority of India (SAI), the National Institute of Sports (NIS), state associations…………many are lined up to eat the pie. But where are the results?

What are we going to do with the money that would be collected under sports lottery banner? Are we going to create many more associations to accommodate politicians who mastered the martial arts well in their filed??? Government should spell out the plans prior hand. This can be a good example for transparency and accountability of the system.